The invention is related to communication between computers and over telephone and wireless networks.
The last half of our rapidly expiring century has been dominated by the emerging importance of communication through networks of computers. Computer communication has become increasingly popular because of its ability to convey multimedia messages in a precise and predictable manner. The popularity of electronic mail has been boosted with the emergence of the Internet as a worldwide network of computers, where people all over the world can effortlessly communicate with each other over the Internet. The future also continues to promise further developments in this area as communications between computers is steadily being improved through faster and cheaper links that extend all over the world.
Although the revolution in computer communications has provided a new and useful platform for individuals to communicate with each other, the capabilities and flexibility of computer communication dictates increasingly complex hardware and software requirements for the end user. Thus, for example, a user seeking to receive electronic mail over the Internet needs no less than a notebook computer configured with a modem device and communication software. More importantly, the user must establish a communication path through a circuit switched telephone network before being able to receive e-mail messages. Thus, there is a need for a system to convey such types of messages to a user through a less complicated and more direct means.